The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1887-02-05
THE LABOR DIFFICULTIES.
The Perceptible Change in the Situation at
New York-Additional Strikes.

NEW YORK, Feb. 4.-There was slight i'm
provement in the condition Of affairs on the
river front this morning. The steamship COM
panies are slowly recovering from the stagnaton
to business that the strike of the 'ongshoremen
at first occasioned, and are moving freight with
more despatch than in any of the past four or
five days. Nowhere is this more noticeable than
on the East river front The steamers are being
got away on their regular sailing days. and the
freight lines are once more receiving and deliv
ering goods In most cases the work on the
steamer piers is being done by green men. and
on the freight lines by the deck hands of the
freight boats. The tramp steamers are being
discharged and loaded by their own crews, as
sisted by Italian or other non-union men. The
steamer Niagara is being loaded to-day, and will
be ready to sail in time tomorrow There are
about twenty old hands at work on this dock
They were given the advance of 40 cents for day
work and 60 cents for night work At the Bris-
tolline dock the steamer Warwick was discharg-
ing with her own crew and fifty Italians. The
regular men did not put in an appearance when
| the boat arrived. The Alamo, of the Mallory, is
still at the bulkhead. When she will be ready
to sail no one can tell but an effert will ne made
| to get her cargo in by tomorrow. The City of
San Antonio and the Lampassas are also docked,
waiting to be discharged.
The strike Is growing in Brooklyn. The coal
cart drivers and shovelers in the yards along the
| Gownaus canal struck to-day, and also in other
| parts of the city. few no2-union men who
| took their places were in some cases assaulted
| The driver of one of Willis's 6al-carts was
forced to leave his cart, and the coal was dumped
! in the street. One of the Woods carts was also
dumped. One of the police precincts was out of
| coal The captain could get none, as the men
were all on strike The weghers' helpers have
| returned to work, their pay being increased.
The White Star steamship, Republic. and the
| Cunard line steamship. City of Chicago, sched-
uled to sail to-day, with the transatlantic mails,
will not be able to get off because Of the strike.
| In an editorial on the strike. in the Standard,
Henry George says: Il think it fight in the
dark, the blind push OF men squeezed past
| endurance. / think it the first passive form of
| civil war which steel-clad forts and armor-
| plated ships cannot guard US against-the kind
ling of passions, and the arrayng of forces that,
reused to full energy, may give cities to the
| flames, and destroy our very civilization ITSELF"
| A number of the striking coal-handlers at the
docks of the Lehigh Valley Railroad Company,
| at Perth Amboy. returned to work to day. The
| remainder, it is said disheartened and they
| will probably all return to work next week
| At the headquarters of the Ocean Associa
| ton, to-day, it was said that Smith & Mcneil,
| restaurant-keepers, had agreed to supply guam
| tity of provisions for the families of the strik
ers, and that many landlords had agreed not to
press them for rent Supplies were offered also
| by butchers and bakers
The strikers on the pier of the New Haven &
| Hartford railroad, East river, were to day adj
mitted into the union. This makes over four
| hundred admitted this week.
The caulkers and jointers at work repairing
| the Guyandotte, the Old Dominion steamer that
| was damaged by the explosion of an internal
| machine, struck to-day They had no grev-
ances. but struck out of sympathy with the
freight handlers. Their places will be filed to-
morrow by non-union men. The ccopers en-
ployed along the piers with the mlwrights
joined the strike to-day. The painters and me-
chanics on the Guion line struck to-day. The
Italians who took the places of strikers at the
Hudson river depot quit work this afternoon
The Lehigh valley company closed its pier gates
at P NJ. The Pennsylvania and Jersey Cen
trail and, in fact, all other piers along the river
fronts, had the same blockade and difficulty in
moving freight
The committee Of the State Legislature to in
vestigate the coal handlers strike met to-day and
listened the evidence of mum Der OF the strik-
ers Their evidence was concurrent to the gem
| eral effect that topmen could earn about $2S
! per month and trimmers about $40;
that trimming is highly injurious
to the lungs, necessitatine heavy
OUTLAWS for medicines and causing death in a few
| years; that the coal companies take from 10 to
% per cent out of their wages for collecting the
money due them from the captains of the boats
loaded; that the same deduction is made when
the boats belong to the company itself. They
consider this an unnecessary charge and as
serted the necessity of advance in wages in
order to enable them to support their families
Mr.. Beecher's Opinion of the knights.
NEW YORK, Feb. An the course of his re
ply to a toast at the annual banquet of the Am
herst Alumni Association to night, Rev. Henry
Ward Beecher said: This abomnation, the
Knights of Labor. is the result of this internal
idea Of paternity of governments. Because a
| few men in New Jersey think their employers
have wronged them, all this Nation is called
upon to suffer on the order of this
paternal governments of the Knights of Labor
: This is from want of intelligence God knows
/ am friend of the workingmen. l am a work
ingman. / came from working stock. My
, | grandfather and his father were blacksmiths
! and my mothers people worked In leather. The
working people are being taken care of by the
Knights of Labor instead of taking care oil
themselves, and people all over the land are be
. ing punished and business is stagnated because
: of it. Just because few men in Jersey have
} done wrong The destruction of the poor is
their ignorance"
gThreatened Riot at Port Sharon.
PITTsBURG. Feb. "A Port Sharon, Pa.
special says: There is well-based anticipation O
riot here, tomorrow. between the strikins
furnacemen of the vicinity and the furnace EN-
poyes of the Atlantic and Sharon iron compa
: MES. The latter have refused to strike claim
ing that they only asked for advance of Il
cents, which was Immediately granted, they hav,
D I no grievances The 400 employees of the other
furnaces demand 10 cents more and tonight IN
innate that they will visit the obstinate work
f men and request them to quit work. Upon re
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